I Find No Peace

(Thomas Wyatt)

Right from the start the intelligent reader can hear that repetition of the sound “i”, that is an assonance, in the title of the sonnet. “I find no peace” underlines the sound “i”, which may recall the sound of a cry. This is what the title may suggest and the reader is curious to find the reason why the speaking voice can find no peace. The title itself underlines the frustrated research for peace of the speaking voice, since there is an absolute negation: the poet doesn't say he cannot find any peace; rather he asserts that there is no peace in his life. So the question that might move the reader in reading the text is to find an answer to his question.

The layout clearly shows that the text is a sonnet, since it is organised into four stanzas: two quatrains and two tercets, the typical structure of the Petrarchean sonnet. Therefore, he expects he will discover about the poet's complex situation in the octave, that is in the fist two stanzas (two quatrains), and a possible solution in the two tercets. Indeed, the sextet ends the poem, which is of course a lyrical one: just looking at the text without even reading it the reader will see the high density of the subject pronoun “I” and this is what makes him or her expect to read something lyrical, something personal and private.

In the first quatrain the speaking voice seems to have come to a sort of resignation after a long battle with himself in order to find peace. But it sounds as if he hadn't been able to. To tell the truth he says that he hopes, burns and freezes thus conveying contradictory emotions. He also says something that might sound absurd: he flies but he cannot arise. At the same time, he says he has “nought” and “all the world he seizes on”.

After the denotative analysis of the first stanza, the intelligent reader realizes that the whole lines are based on contrast as the organising principle: “find no peace” is in contrast with “war is done”, “fair” is in contrast with “hope” and “burn” and “freeze” are opposites. The principle he has chosen helps readers almost to feel the complex emotional situation the poet is living. In addition, the poet relies on hyperbole both in line 3 and 4 to make his mood more lively and involving: how can a person “fly above the wind” and at the same time “being unable to arise” (line 3). This is a paradox and the same paradox comes back again in line 4, where the language deviation “and nought I have” seems to be in total contradiction with the second part of the line, where the speaking voice says “all the world I seize on”. The analysis of the stanza perfectly helps to understand the almost vivid emotional suffering of the speaking voice in that the reader feels he can almost perceive the pain of the speaker. The stylistic choices based on contrast bring together opposing words and feelings that are typical of an inner struggle. Therefore, the next step he or she wants to take is to find out what the matter is with him and he has to read on as far as line 11 to discover the mystery since only there he will come across the reason of his tragic situation. “I love another, and thus I hate myself”. The curiosity of the reader to be satisfied has to follow the climatic construction of the sonnet, since it is only at line 11 that the poet unveils the reason and the mystery of his apparently contradictory feeling, one which all lovers may experiment sooner or later.